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Shaban 13, 1442 March 26, 2021
PAKISTAN
Tareen, Hamza face arrest in sugar Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad scandal LAHORE: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detected Rs110 billion earning by the sugar mafia during the last one year through ‘speculative pricing’ and on Wednesday constituted 20 teams to lay hands on those involved in it. Also in the day, the FIA anti-corruption circle registered an FIR against estranged PTI leader Jahangir Tareen’s JDW group and Gourmet Bakers & Sweets Pvt Ltd, Lahore, under sections 420, 468, 471 and 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), read with sections 3/4 of Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010.According to the FIR, during the course of inquiry against the sugar mafia, “it has transpired that sugar industry barons, sugar-brokers & their satta-agents (speculative pricing players), in active connivance with sugar-mills, have transformed into a clandestine sugar satta-mafia and are operating in a collusive but secret-mode, especially through electronic means/ WhatsApp groups to dishonestly and fraudulently maneuver, manipulate and artificially hike sugar prices, amidst hoax of impending sugar-stocks shortages (while sugar-stocks are lying ‘unsold’ or ‘sold/un-lifted’ in mills & godowns and demand-supply gap is artificial)”.
The inquiry reveals “the satta-mafia had already fraudulently ramped-up the (speculative) ex-mill price by Rs20/kg in last one year (from Rs70/kg on Feb 11, 2020 to Rs90 per kg on March 21, 2021; they are now conspiring to pump it upwards of Rs110 per kg in Ramzan.” During the inquiry it was revealed that “even the leading registered businesses in the country, like Gourmet Bakers & Sweets Pvt Ltd Lahore, are being facilitated by satta-mafia agents to commit huge accounting & tax-frauds in a very organized manner by concealing their actual sugar consumption & consequently business turnover.” Source: dawn.com
Fazl, Zardari vow to keep PDM intact
ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUIF) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari talked by telephone for a second time in a week on Wednesday and agreed to make every effort to keep the opposition’s alliance Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) intact. In a significant development hours after the telephonic talk between the two leaders, PPP gave a call to its workers to accompany Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) vice president Maryam Nawaz during her appearance before the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in Lahore on Friday (tomorrow) in line with the PDM’s decision. While directing party leaders and activists to join the rally with full preparations, President of the PPP’s Central Punjab chapter Qamar Zaman Kaira in a statement announced that he would himself lead the party’s convoy.
On Tuesday, PPP Chairman Bilawal BhuttoZardari had barred the party leaders and members from issuing statements against any PDM component party, particularly the PML-N. PPP asks its workers to accompany Maryam during her appearance before NAB The decision that the leaders of the PDM component parties would accompany Ms Nawaz had been taken during a meeting between Maulana Fazlur Rehman and PML-N leaders at Jati Umra on March 21. Source: dawn.com
Allowing private imports of Covid vaccines is a ‘deliberate policy tool’: govt The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), responding to letter by Transparency International Pakistan (TIP), on Wednesday said the federal government’s decision to allow private imports of Covid-19 vaccines was a “deliberate policy tool”. NHS Secretary Aamir Ashraf Khawaja, in the letter, said the government allowed private imports so those population segments which were not part of the government’s priority inoculation campaign could be catered to.“It was a well concerned decision of the federal government to allow the private sector to import vaccine as the national vaccination priorities favoured the healthcare workers and the elderly, involving some lag in reaching other segments of the society.” Khawaja said in the letter that initially there had been no prices set for the imported vaccines since there was no reference price available according to the law but later, a provision of the Drug Pricing Policy under was applied to Covid vaccines “to keep a check on prices instead of leaving it solely to free market dynamics”.“It may be added that the government is fixing the maximum re-
tail price,” Khawaja said in the letter, adding that this meant competition and free market dynamics could potentially reduce the price from the maximum retail price.The government’s response comes two days after Transparency International Pakistan, in a letter penned by Justice (r) Nasira Iqbal, had asked the prime minister to review the policy of allowing private imports and cancel it altogether, as across the globe, governments were procuring vaccines and administering it to their citizens for free. The TIP letter had noted that Pakistan being one of the first countries to allow the private sector to import and sell Covid-19 vaccines would provide a window of corruption as there were possibilities that the government’s vaccines would be sold to private hospitals... Source: dawn.com
The grand military parade in connection with Pakistan Day celebrations, that was previously postponed due to “inclement weather”, is currently under way in Islamabad at Parade Ground near the Shakarparian hills. President Arif Alvi is attending the parade as the chief guest, while Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Nadeem Raza, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Amjad Khan Niazi are also present. However, Prime Minister Imran Khan was unable to attend as he is currently in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19. The impressive ceremony kicked off with the fly past of the Pakistan Air Force and Pakistan Navy fighter jets, led by Air Chief Zaheer Ahmad Babar Sidhu, which saluted the president. F-16, JF 17, Mirage, AWACs, P-3C Orion and ATR aircraft formation participated in the fly past.‘Pakistan fully capable of defending its integrity’In his speech, President Alvi said Pakistan was equipped to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty, categorically stating that any
misadventure will receive a befitting response, Radio Pakistan reported. “We will defend our independence at all costs,” he said. However, he added that Pakistan desired peace, security and development in the whole region and had taken practical steps in pursuit of this. He said that peaceful coexistence was the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy, adding that the current situation required the South Asian leadership to reject the politics of hate, prejudice and religious extremism. “Pakistan wants to move forward with good intent and peace, but our desire for peace should not be construed as our weakness,” he said. President Alvi also paid tribute to the country’s armed forces, stating that the entire country stood shoulder to shoulder with them in the face of foreign aggression and on national issues. “Our martyrs and our ghazis are our pride,” he said. He also commented on the situation in occupied Kashmir. “The entire nation stands by their Kashmiri brothers and sisters in this hour of trial.” The president also urged the international community to take notice of the grim situation in the occupied valley. Source: dawn.com
NA speaker writes to parliamentary leaders for electoral reforms ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Spea ker Asad Qaiser on Thursday sent letters to parliamentary leaders of all parties in the house, informing them about a decision taken by him after consultation with Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani about formation of a parliamentary committee to carry out electoral reforms. The letter with the subject “Appointment of Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms”, written by a joint secretary of the parliamentary committees and a copy of which was released to the media by the National Assembly Secretariat, says that “the speaker, in consultation with the Senate chairman, has been pleased to inform you that the subject committee consisting of leaders of the parliamentary parties in the National Assembly and the Senate is required to be appointed to undertake comprehensive electoral reforms”. “The committee shall be notified as soon as the list of the parliamentary leaders in the Senate is finalised,” says the letter, which was sent to all parliamentary leaders of the parties, hours after Mr Qaiser’s separate meetings with the Senate chairman and two key federal ministers — Information Minister Shibli Faraz and Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry. In the meetings, it was decided that the committee would comprise all the parliamentary leaders of the parties having representation in the Senate and the National Assembly. PML-N refuses to become part of committee The letter says the committee is being
formed “in pursuant to the prime minister’s agenda, in the interest of democracy in Pakistan, to establish a credible and transparent electoral system and to put an end to all venues that allow for corrupt practices that are eroding our parlia-mentary democracy and to ensure transparent, fair and free elections at all levels”.On the other hand, the main opposition Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) said a categorical “no” to the government-proposed parliamentary committee, as party’s information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said that “no negotiations are possible with a person who imprisons political rivals with their daughters”. Talking to reporters in Lahore, Ms Aurangzeb said that those people were talking about electoral, parliamentary and political reforms who had put Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif and the party’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Khawaja Asif behind bars. Source: dawn.com
